My Dorset Heritage – Flora McGowan 

I grew up in Dorset on the English south coast, an area that for many people is synonymous with King Alfred, Wessex and Thomas Hardy (The Mayor of Casterbridge etc). History has always been very important to me – my first love was dinosaurs. And also reading. As many children do, I always had my nose in a book; often one written by Enid Blyton who stayed in the area and based many of her stories on Dorset locations including Brownsea Island (Whispering Island) and Corfe Castle (Kirrin Castle, Five on a Treasure Island).

We used to pass Corfe Castle when visiting my grandparents. It’s a magical place and I am planning to include it in a future book. The castle was built after the Norman conquest of 1066, however there was a previous building where the young English King, Edward the Martyr was assassinated in 978 probably by command of his stepmother Aelfthryth in favour of her son Aethelred (the Unready). Several miracles after his death are linked to Edward and he is regarded as a saint in the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. After the English Civil War the castle was slighted having been defended by Lady Bankes against the Roundheads while her husband was away fighting.

My grandmother used to tell us stories about her experiences during World War 2. My grandfather was away fighting and she raised their two young children by herself. However, they lost everything when a bomb landed on their house and a man was killed trying to defuse it.

When I heard about the local Branksome Bombing in March 1941 I wanted to write a story (Desperately Seeking Freddie) to commemorate those people who died – ordinary people struck down whilst going about their daily lives, in much the same way that the Ukrainians are suffering today, and, in fact, I took the title of our charity anthology Not Just Soldiers from a comment made by a character in the story – ‘It isn’t just soldiers who die in wartime.’ There is a plaque in St Aldhelm’s Church inscribed with the names of those who died.

Click here to feature your book in the Review Tales Magazine